Augusta, Maine — On Friday, Maine Democrats called out Bobby Charles for this long-standing role with the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC), an organization that wants to increase the Social Security retirement age from 67 to 70. This proposal would force older Mainers to work longer and disproportionately harm those who perform physical labor. Charles is a national spokesperson for AMAC and has represented them in countless national interviews and media appearances.
Maine Democrats called on Bobby Charles to renounce the organization and resign from his current position. So far, Charles has refused to do either.
The speakers, including former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Nirav Shah, former Associate State Director of Advocacy at AARP John Hennessy, and retired family doctor and former state legislator Dr. Linda Sanborn, also sounded the alarm over Charles’ reckless plan to slash Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services in half and cut MaineCare, which would hurt Maine seniors.
The speakers, including former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Nirav Shah, former Associate State Director of Advocacy at AARP John Hennessy, and retired family doctor and former state legislator Dr. Linda Sanborn, also sounded the alarm over Charles’ reckless plan to slash Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services in half and cut MaineCare, which would hurt Maine seniors.
WATCH NEWS CENTER MAINE’S COVERAGE
News Center Maine: Maine Democrats claim gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles’ policies threaten senior healthcare
Iselin Bratz – August 28
- At a presser on Friday, Maine Democrats claimed that the healthcare of seniors would be in jeopardy if Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Bobby Charles were elected.
- They said that his support of the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC), an advocacy group that calls itself “the Conservative Alternative to the AARP,” is alarming. The association supports gradually increasing the retirement age from 67 to 70, among other causes.
- Former Democratic Candidate for Governor Nirav Shah spoke at the presser. He said that Charles’ support of cuts to MaineCare would hurt seniors in the state.
- “Anything that takes a dime out of our health care spending is something that will be balanced on the backs of Maine’s seniors,” said Shah.
Maine Independent News: Bobby Charles is spokesperson for a group pushing to raise Social Security eligibility age
Josh Israel – August 31
- A former assistant secretary of state under President George W. Bush, Charles became national spokesperson for the AMAC in 2019, having previously worked for the organization for eight years as a strategic planner, writer, and congressional outreach supervisor. AMAC calls itself “the conservative alternative to AARP” and has promoted Charles’ campaign.
- AMAC opposed the Affordable Care Act, which banned health insurance companies from discriminating against individuals with preexisting medical conditions and required them to cover annual physicals and preventive healthcare and continues to call for its replacement.
- It advocates what it calls “a solution to Social Security’s long-term insolvency problem” that would include replacing the program’s annual cost-of-living adjustment percentage increase with a flat dollar amount and “adjusting the normal (full) retirement age (NRA) from 67 to 70 over a period of 12 years, beginning at a point that shields those within 10 years of age 62 from any effect of the change.”
- In 2012, the group also proposed a plan that would have gradually raised the minimum age at which Americans could start receiving Social Security benefits from 62 to 65 for many would-be beneficiaries. It would also have changed the annual cost-of-living adjustment to a flat 1.65%, regardless of inflation.
- “Raising the retirement age would be devastating for hundreds of thousands of Mainers who are counting on getting the resources they’ve worked for and paid into the system throughout their careers,” former Maine AARP associate state director for advocacy John Hennessy told the Maine Independent in an emailed statement. “People have built their retirement plans around those benefits. They have made decisions about when to retire, where to live and how to support themselves based on the expectation that Social Security would be there when they need it.”
- The Charles campaign and AMAC did not immediately respond to requests for comment for this story.
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